58 hidden details in Mortal Kombat (1995)
Paul WS Anderson’s Hollywood debut saw him adapting successfully “Mortal Kombat”, the infamous videogame arcade of the early 90’s. Considered by many now an under-rated and cult gem of martial arts, during the film’s 25th anniversary (August 2020), “Mortal Kombat“ (1995) has got a serious re-evaluation.
Rotten Tomatoes wrote a championing editorial to alter its rating (originally at 35%, now sitting at a rather more comfortable 47%) whereas its Metacritic score remains a solid 60, followed by an 8.3 user rating! Officially recognized as peak 90’s creation, its re-evaluation has included a wider acceptance of its groundbreaking soundtrack, tongue and cheek approach, respect to the source material and aggressive martial art sequences that remain novel so many years later. Bringing for the first time, wire-fu sequences in Hollywood, it proved unexpectedly to be a massive hit (for a genre film), spending three weeks at the top of the US box office and showcased tremendous (for the time) visuals with an exotic flair.
What is most surprising though is the effort that was put into this production as noted by the famous film critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and it shows. There are so many nicely hidden details which could escape the common eye. Here are 58 hidden details from the movie adaptation of “Mortal Kombat”.
1. The Mortal Kombat logo appears almost everywhere.
2. The opening fight is actually a flawless victory. Chan (Liu Kang's brother) never lands a hit on Shang Tsung.
3. When Shang Tsung taunts Liu Kang in his nightmare, he morphs into an eyeless skeleton like figure. When he is defeated by Liu Kang at the end of the film, and he is impaled in a row of spikes, he reverts to his original form, his youth and power maintained by the enslaved souls, now gone, leaving behind the same skeleton alike form that we saw in opening sequence. Talking about foreshadowing.
3. When Shang Tsung taunts Liu Kang in his nightmare, he morphs into an eyeless skeleton like figure. When he is defeated by Liu Kang at the end of the film, and he is impaled in a row of spikes, he reverts to his original form, his youth and power maintained by the enslaved souls, now gone, leaving behind the same skeleton alike form that we saw in opening sequence. Talking about foreshadowing.
6. There is a Steven Spielberg lookalike on purpose in the Johnny Cage movie set. Spielberg was supposed to do this cameo but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
9. Every appearance of Raiden is done via teleportation - in one shot he is not there, in the next one he is.
10. Even the movement of lights has a low ambient sound effect sound when they occur within the frame e.g., the lighthouse at the Pier 40 in the Hong Kong bay to give the film an otherworldly feeling.
11. Shang Tsung dresses only in black (Darkness) whereas Raiden in white (Light) no matter the setting (beach, temple, club, forest) or time of the day (day, dusk, dawn, night).
13. The banners throughout Shang Tsung's island are written in Mandarin and they actually spell Mortal Kombat!
14. Throughout the film, you can see hooded figures - the silent monks. These are taken directly from the videogame. They are called silent because their lips are stitched together. However, since the film had a PG-13 film, this detail was considered to be gruesome so it was omitted (bottom left still).
21. Sets are lifted entirely from the videogame's fight arenas - Scorpion's lair, Shang Tsung's palace gardens, Goro's lair, Shang Tsung's throne room.
24. Goro's belt has a variation of the Ying Yang symbol.
25. When Goro walks, there is a thumping sound to indicate how heavy (and big) he is.
27. In Goro's lair, when Kano throws away his food after taking a bite, you can hear rats squealing over it (left speaker in you have a surround system).
28. There is a pond on the right side of Goro's lair (behind Kano) indicating that it is indeed subterranean.
29. In the actual first fight of the tournament, before it begins, Liu Kang is doing a traditional salute in Kung Fu.
30. When Scorpion's spear has been tangled around a tree, the actual tree is moving to give more weight to the CGI.
31. During the fight between Kitana and Liu Kang at the beach, there is a silent monk on the right of Shang Tsung with a massive book and quail. From a visual storytelling perspective, he is to record the outcome of each fight.
32. The same beach is the now famous Railay beach (packed with tourists).
33. The original skirmish between Subzero and Liu Kang back and forth in a 2-D environment follows the format of the game.
38. Liu Kang does his special (and non-reality based) moves - fireball and bicycle kick - only when he is in Outworld.
39. It is the first Hollywood film to employ wire fu, way before the "Matrix" did, a courtesy of Robin Shou (a veteran of Hong Kong cinema) who choregraphed two of the most famous fights in the movie (Liu Kang vs Reptile, Johnny vs Scorpion).
40. Just before Reptile transforms, you can hear a voice yelling "Reptile". This is the voice of Shao Kahn from the videogames when you select this (or any) character.
41. The reason for Liu Kang's surprised face when seeing Reptile coming from the hole in the wall just before he hits him with a kick in the face is to verify how fast Reptile moves, a trademark of the fan favourite videogame character.
42. At this shot, Robin Shou broke three ribs.
43. During the Reptile fight in Outworld, the same design from the arena of Evil Tower in the Mortal Kombat II game can be seen in the background.
44. In one of the walls during this fight, there is a cheat code for the Mortal Kombat game.
45. Paul WS Anderson kept close up shots for Shang Tsung due to the expressive facial features of Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa.
46. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa almost never blinks in the entire duration of the film to give his character an otherworldly feeling and a snake like charm.
47. Liu Kang wears less clothes as the film goes on - his outfit is a leather mid waist jacket, a long sleeve polo shirt, a singlet, a pair of pants and shoes. During the first fight with Shang Tsung's henchmen in Goro's lair, he has ditched the leather jacket. During his fight with the other tournament combatants, he wears only the singlet. By the time he fights Shang Tsung, he wears only pants and shoes.
49. Just before their fight, Liu Kang and Shang Tsung pay respects to each other, a common gesture in martial arts sparring matches. If you listen closely though, you can hear Shang Tsung's medication grunt engulfing the surround system when he is doing his salute.
50. After paying respects before the beginning of the fight, Shang Tsung quickly attempts an elbow hit towards Liu Kang's face. Liu's reaction of surprise indicates how really fast Tsung is in a fight.
51. The attempted elbow hits and blocks between Shang Tsung and Liu Kang are done to be identical on purpose showing they are both equal in physical strength. Only when Liu Kang attempts to kick Shang Tsung in the face, the fight breaks momentum with Shang Tsung kneeing Liu Kang in the face.
52. When Shang Tsung summons six additional warriors to fight Liu Kang, they seem to be coming from different eras - there is a samurai among them.
53. Just before Shang Tsung morphs into Chan, there is a-blink-and-you-will-miss-it smirk on his face showing his confidence and arrogance.
54. When Shang Tsung morphs into Chan to trick Liu Kang, he never blinks - as Chan, indicating that this is Shang Tsung as this is a trademark of the character in the film.
55. When Shang Tsung is defeated, a soulnado of all the defeated warriors is released. If you look closely, the souls in the background are actually those of the six warriors that Liu Kang defeated earlier.
56. Once the soulnado is closed, Shang Tsung's body has disappeared completely indicating that he might return for the sequel as he is (kinda) immortal in the videogames or just a too hard to get rid of villain!
57. Frank Welker (Optimus Prime in the animated Transformers series) voiced Shao Kahn at the end of the film.
58. The film incorporated 17 special moves, finishers, brutalities and friendships throughout its duration. Here is the full list:
Scorprion's spear
Scorpion's teleportation
Scorpion's first fatality (flaming skull)
Johnny Cage's shadow kick
Johnny Cage's friendship move (signed autograph)
Johnny Cage's crotch punch
Subzero's ice ball fatality
Sonya Blade's leg grappler
Shang Tsung soul sucking fatality
Shang Tsung morphing into various defeated opponents
Shang Tsung teleportation
Stage Fatality (spikes)
Liu Kang's fireball
Liu Kang's bicycle kick
Brutality (Liu Kang to Shang Tsung)
Raiden's teleportation
Reptile's acid spitting
Reptile's camouflage
58. The film incorporated 18 special moves, finishers, brutalities and friendships throughout its duration. Here is the full list:
Johnny Cage's shadow kick
Johnny Cage's friendship move (signed autograph)
Johnny Cage's crotch punch
Stage Fatality (spikes)
Liu Kang's fireball
Liu Kang's bicycle kick
Brutality (Liu Kang to Shang Tsung)
Raiden's teleportation
Reptile's acid spitting
Reptile's camouflage
Scorprion's spear
Scorpion's teleportation
Scorpion's first fatality (flaming skull)
Shang Tsung soul sucking fatality
Shang Tsung morphing into various defeated opponents
Shang Tsung teleportation
Sonya Blade's leg grappler
Subzero's ice ball fatality